Hydrazide is an organic compound known to be industrially beneficial i.e. as bioactive synthesis intermediates in pharmaceutical manufacturing, surfactants or polymerisation agents in chemical applications.
Various methods have been developed to prepare hydrazide i.e. through chemical synthesis which requires multiple steps, high temperatures and pressure, produced by-products. One of the most widely used method for hydrazide preparation is treating esters with hydrazine monohydrate where the reaction involves unreactive esters that generally require refluxing in a basic condition for a few hours. However, this method is hazardous as it is an energy-intensive reaction and could evoke decomposition of the desired products.
Other past efforts to prepare such useful hydrazide, and substituted derivatives thereof were described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,310,696, 4,435,600 and 4,954,655. However, these methods are found to be costly, time consuming, and labour intensive.
In the recent years, enzymatic processes have become a preferred alternative to produce hydrazide. This is largely due to the advantages of enzymatic reactions which do not require high operating temperatures or high-pressured conditions and are less energy-intensive than chemical catalyst-dependant processes. The enzymes also possess high specificity and high selectivity toward substrates. This prevents production of undesired by-products during the reaction, thus, making enzymatic processes clean from undesired by-products, less hazardous and environment-friendly.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method to produce hydrazide using enzymatic route, providing solution to disadvantages as described in prior art.